BiG Football News

IOWA CITY, Iowa – – University of Iowa senior linebacker Josey Jewell is one of nine semifinalists for the 2017 Lott IMPACT Trophy. The announcement was made Thursday by the Pacific Club IMPACT Foundation, which is responsible for honoring the nation’s best defensive IMPACT player at the end of the season.

The Senior CLASS Award is an acronym for Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School, and focuses on the total student-athlete. Jewell is the only Big Ten Conference player among the semifinalists.

Jewell (6-foot-2, 236-pounds), a native of Decorah, Iowa, has played in eight of Iowa’s nine games, leading the team with 92 tackles, which leads the Big Ten and is fourth in the nation. Jewell has led Iowa in tackles in each of the last two seasons (126 in 2015, 124 in 2016). His totals in 2017 include three sacks (24 yards), 9.5 tackles for loss, seven pass break-ups, one interception, one forced fumble, and one recovered fumble.

Jewell is also a semifinalist for the Butkus Award and Bednarik Award. He is one of 10 finalists for the Senior CLASS Award. Jewell was named a midseason first-team All-American by five media outlets, and earlier in the season earned national award recognition for his play against Wyoming and Penn State.

Four finalists for the Lott IMPACT Trophy will be named Tuesday, Nov. 28, with the winner announced Dec. 10 at the Pacific Club in Newport Beach, California, by Ronnie Lott. Each finalist will receive $5,000 for the university’s general scholarship fund, with the winner earning $25,000 for the general scholarship fund. Former Iowa linebacker James Morris was a finalist for the award in 2013, while former defensive back Desmond King was a semifinalist in 2016.

Tickets for Iowa’s final home game against Purdue (Nov. 18, TBA) are available online at hawkeyesports.com or over the phone at (800) IA-HAWKS.

STANLEY NAMED MANNING AWARD PLAYER OF THE WEEK

IOWA CITY, Iowa – – University of Iowa quarterback Nate Stanley has been selected as the Manning Award national Quarterback of the Week following Iowa’s 55-24 win over No. 3 Ohio State. He earned the award over seven other Manning Award Stars of the Week in the Allstate Sugar Bowl’s Facebook contest.

Stanley (6-foot-5, 235-pounds), a native of Menomonie, Wisconsin (Menomonie), tied a Kinnick Stadium record with five touchdown passes as the offense scored the most points ever in the 65 game series with the Buckeyes. Stanley shares the stadium record with former Iowa quarterbacks Chuck Long (Northern Illinois, 1985) and Fred Riddle (Indiana, 1963).

Stanley completed 20-of-31 pass attempts for 226 yards, with touchdown passes of 10, 25, 3, 2, and 2 yards. He directed the Iowa offense that had no turnovers and 487 yards total offense. Ohio State entered the game allowing 18.2 points and 302.5 yards total offense in its previous eight games. Iowa’s offense gained 243 rushing yards and 244 passing yards in the contest.

Stanley, who also had five scoring passes in a 44-41 overtime win at Iowa State, is the only Iowa quarterback to throw five touchdown passes in a single game more than once in a season (Chuck Long had six scoring strikes in a single game in two different seasons). Stanley (22) is the first Hawkeye quarterback with 20 or more touchdown passes in a season since 2011 (James Vandenberg, 25).

Earlier this season, Stanley shared the Big Ten Conference Offensive Player of the Week honors for his play at Iowa State. He was also named a Manning Award Star of the Week and selected as a Davey O’Brien Award “Great 8” for his play at Iowa State.

Stanley has started all nine games for the Hawkeyes, completing 151-of-259 pass attempts for 1,929 yards, with 22 touchdown passes and just four interceptions. Stanley has thrown 12 touchdowns and zero interceptions against AP top 25 opponents (Ohio State, Michigan State, Penn State, Iowa State). He averaged 236.8 yards per game against those four opponents. His 22 scoring strikes rank second in the Big Ten and are tied for 11th in the nation. Long holds Iowa’s single season touchdown record (27 in 1985).

Owner's Corner

On Ramp Indiana just released my numbers to me. In the last six days Excel High School Sports had 64,094 visitors. 38,528 were on line during the two (2) days of our Indiana Class Basketball All-Star Classic